Touring the Bases With Barbara Gregorich

Ted Leavengood interviews fellow SABR member and author Barbara Gregorich at Seamheads.com on May 5:

Q. In your book, Women at Play, many of the women who made a name for themselves in baseball were quite independent minded, is that a fair characterization?

Barbara: Yes, they were strong women many of whom came from rural backgrounds or lived on farms where they were required to take a very responsible role within the family. When I interviewed many of these women they came from that background, so when they wanted to play baseball, they had the independence to pursue it and that is just what they did.

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Q. There was so much resistance to women like Julie Croteau and Toni Stone who actually played with men, has anything happened to make that easier?

Barbara: [SABR member] Justine Siegal who runs “Baseball for All,” things are being made easier (use link to learn more). Justine made history this spring by pitching batting practice for five or six teams, one of which was the Cleveland Indians, in both Florida and Arizona. And of course there have been interesting things going on with women playing professional baseball like the Silver Bullets. But that team was always on the road and they had such a tough time. They could never train like they could if they had a gym of their own. Justine was a high school student at the time Women at Play was published and I remember a friend from Cleveland sent me a clipping about Justine the same time as the book was published.